Report Confirms: Cuts in State Support for TX School Kids Causes Local Property Taxes to Skyrocket

Texas kids and local homeowners pay the price for one-party Republican control.

Share on facebook

Share on twitter

Share on reddit

Share on email

Over recent years, virtually all Democrats, but also some Republican officials like Tarrant Judge Glen Whitely, have made the case that the failure of Austin leaders to adequately fund public schools is driving up local property taxes. Following the release of a recent state study, it’s no longer a matter of political debate or finger-pointing.

An official report prepared for the Texas Legislative Budget Board (LBB) demonstrates that over the past decade, cuts in state spending for our children’s schools has caused local property taxes to go up. The report’s findings confirm that Dan Patrick, Greg Abbott and other state leaders – all Republicans since 2003 – have abandoned their constitutional responsibility to assure quality education for Texas kids and shifted it onto the backs of local businesses and homeowners.

The Texas Tribune detailed the report’s findings in a news report yesterday. The coverage includes a chart that tracks what local, state and federal taxpayers have been contributing to public education in Texas over the past decade. The chart shows that while the raw total of education spending has risen, it has failed to keep pace with inflation and a dramatic increase in student enrollment. Meanwhile, inadequate state funding has forced local property taxpayers to pay $10 billion more in school taxes, and that has still failed to cover the cost of education, as per pupil funding has dropped dramatically over the past decade.

Here are the key points:

Funding Per Student Falling – Funding, from ALL sources, in constant dollars (adjusted for inflation and population) is $619LESS per student than in 2010. School funding has dropped by $2.76 billion (in constant dollars) while school enrollment has increased by almost 700,000 students.

State Share Dropping/Local Share Rising – The state’s share of public education funding – from all sources (state, local and federal) has dropped to only 35 percent of the total projected for the 2019 budget while local taxpayers pay 55.5 percent (up from 46.1 percent in 2010) of the bill and 9.5 percent comes from the federal government.

Bottom Line

From Greg Abbott to Dan Patrick to Konni Burton, Texas Republicans are lying to voters with election-eve rhetoric that they have increasededucation funding.

However, an official state reported exposes their big lie. Essentially, these Republican leaders in Austin have cut stateeducation funding and forced local officials to raise local taxes or shortchange our children’s neighborhood public schools.

Paid for by the Lone Star Project, www.lonestarproject.net, not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

Contributions or gifts to the Lone Star Project are not tax deductible. Federal law requires us to use our best efforts to collect and report the name, mailing address, occupation and name of employer of individuals whose contributions exceed $200 in a calendar year. The Lone Star Project is a federal political committee that accepts contributions from individuals, partnerships, and other federal political committees of up to $5,000 per calendar year. All contributions of up to $5,000 per calendar year will be placed in the federal committee account and used in connection with federal elections. Contributions over $5,000 per calendar year can be made to the Lone Star Project’s non-federal committee, and will not be placed in the federal committee account.